My Little Chickadee

     Introducing the family Paridae. It consists of chickadees and titmice.

     My favorite bird from years ago turned out to be the chickadee. Since I first started watching its acrobatics and cuteness plus hearing the songs and sounds that it makes. I first discovered it at the feeders. I used to watch it at my window feeder eating the black sunflower seed in their hulls. After a short while I noticed the little bird would pick the seed up and fly away with it. I began to follow them into the trees, (with binoculars of course), and watched as they held the seeds with their feet as they broke the seed open with their beak. It was both fun and interesting to watch.
    It is the only bird that I have found, so far anyway, which is connected to all seven Chakras. It has so many relations with seven of something, I call that bird my 'lucky 7'. I saw the Black-capped Chickadee when I was in New Jersey, I believe that I saw the Mountain Chickadee when I was briefly in Arizona and I saw  the Carolina Chickadee in the southeast US.There are still four which I have not seen. I would have to travel to Alaska or SW Canada to see two of them.

       The Chickadee has seven species;

• Gray-headed Chickadee - Poecile cinctus (formerly known as the Siberian Tit)
• Black-capped Chickadee - Poecile atricapilla
• Carolina Chickadee - Poecile carolinensis
• Mountain Chickadee - Poecile gambeli
• Mexican Chickadee - Poecile sclateri (the Mexican  Chickadee used to be part of the Black-capped Chickadee until they were split into two species)
• Boreal Chickadee - Poecile hudsonicus    and
• Chestnut-backed Chickadee - Poecile rufescens     

     My second favorite bird is the titmouse. I was feeding birds for many years and I have only seen the
Tufted Titmouse Baeolophus bicolor, although there are others.
     Such as,

• Black-crested Titmouse (Mexican) Baeolophus atricristatus
• Oak Titmouse Baeolophus inornatus
• Juniper Titmouse Baeolophus ridgwayi
• Bridled Titmouse Baeolophus wollweberi

     The Tufted Titmouse and the Black-crested Titmouse used to be labeled as one. They labeled them 'Northern' and 'Mexican'. Then they split them into  two.
     There also used to be one named the Plain Titmouse. That was split into the Oak Titmouse and the Juniper Titmouse.